


Guardian on the stairway to heaven

by Numerion



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-15
Updated: 2016-08-15
Packaged: 2018-08-08 22:57:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7776955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Numerion/pseuds/Numerion





	Guardian on the stairway to heaven

Over the years, I have heard many stories and rumors about the old king. Some say he was stabbed in the back. But that wasn't true. I was there when the king died, no stabbing was involved.   
I was called to arms, sometime late autumn. The king has recently appointed him a commander of the royal forces. He even gave him a name. Eon. At the time, all I ever called him was 'the mercenary', but suddenly he had a name. We were to march south, beyond the mountain range, into the desert. We were told the plague had originated from there. I and every other able man were made into an army. And so we went south. We met the royal army while still in mountains. It was the first time I have seen the king. A young charming person. For those few days I liked him. He kept Eon close. Eon was like a brother to him. Always by his side. Even making jokes. Something I never heard him do. It was an eerie time for me. 

When we were getting to the other side of the mountains, the king has constructed a scout party. The territory wasn't mapped before and we didn't know what we were walking into. The vanguard as he called it, would be constructed of several units and also his royal guard, with him in it. He wanted to be up front if anything happened. He wanted to see everything with his own eyes. Of course, being one of the best trappers, I was to be included. 

We went ahead. I liked the change of pace from the slow marching. Then one day when we were setting up camp, something happened. I was in one of the tents, but I heard screams from the other side of the camp. I moved out rapidly only to see the mutants, or rather what used to be the mutants ages ago. These seemed...reformed. Better. Stronger. There were lots of them, leaping through our camp, ripping soldiers apart.   
I grabbed a spear and attempted to defend myself from one of them. It leapt on me from across a dozen feet. I knew to brace the spear against the ground before it hit. The spear hit it dead on the torso, but it didn't pierce it. The spear broke and the beast was about to swipe me into two with its black claws. In that moment a wild horse trampled across the road, hitting it, stopping its attack. Its focus went to the horse galopping away instead of me. I suppose it thought the horse was a bigger threat.   
I continued between the tents. I counted maybe three or four dozens of the mutants. They were quickly killing a lot of our quys off. And eating them. I saw one of them stick a guy with it's claws and moments later tore another guy's head off. It was gruesome. The most noise was coming from the king's tent. It wasn't much of a tent anymore, lots of torn fabric flapping in the wind. And Eon standing near the king, fighting off two of the mutants with his sword and shield. After a closer look, I noticed three mutant bodies dead on the floor. His arms were stained with blood.   
Somebody tapped me on a shoulder. I nearly ran them through with my sword. It was another person from my unit. His sword was bloody and he spoke quickly "I need your help killing some of them" he said and rushed away from the camp, up to a little hill. I followed him. It wasn't hard to do with all those raging and killing mutants around. I would go anywhere rather than stay there and hope none of them picks a fight with me. He led me to a small cashe of rocks on the hill. I figured out what he wanted to do. We started moving them into proper locations and pushing them off the hill into groups of these mutants. Some others noticed us and joined us, allowing us to kill many of them. We did end up killing our men as well, but most of those would die anyway.   
But then we heard a swoosh of wings and a pair of footsteps behind us. Higher up on the hill a tall bald muscular person with only a light armor stood. Behind him a pair of black wings. He slowly made his way towards us, holding a spear in his arm and a sword strapped to his side. We stood in horror, now knowing what to expect. Without a word he pushed the spear through one of the other guys. And then another as he started pulling out his sword. The rest of us decided it would be better to run. But the only way out was down. I only turned away and looked as the others were trampled by some of the mutants chasing more runaway horses. I knew I was dead either way.

And that's when he appeared from the side. An ornate kiteshield in one hand, his usual broadsword in the other. He attempted to rush in, use the moment of surprise, but the dark angel noticed him. He dodged the quick shield bash by sidestepping, then he promptly spread his wings again and jumped off the ground.  
"I should've expected the cripple to lead this party of weaklings." I heard. I was still barely crawling on the ground, but I could see that Eon wasn't wearing his whole battlearmor. He was back in his trusty chainmail and a full helmet with a visor. He didn't have a reply or I didn't hear it. He was looking straight into the angel's eyes.   
The angel readjusted his grip on the spear and made a swooping attack towards him. I expected Eon to block and counterattack it, but he didn't. Instead he jumped to the side avoiding the attack completely. The angel flew by and raised back into air right away, doing a half circle before swooping back in, this time making a broad sweep which forced Eon to do a full roll on the ground, dodging beneath it. It seemed to me as if he knew how much the angel could commit to these lunges. The angel tried it several more times, but Eon always either dodged to the side, or lied flat on the ground, avoiding any contact at all.  
"Stop playing around and rise into the air." the angel said "Let's battle in the skies, like in the old times." Even through the sun shining into my eyes, I could see the smirk on his face. Eon didn't reply still. Instead he put the sword back into the scabbard and picked a spear from the ground. He glanced back into the sky at the smirking angel and waited. I knew that stance. I have seen it several times before.   
The angel attempted another swooping attack, but Eon quickly hurled the spear right at him, forcing him to dodge it to the side and lose focus for a moment. That's when Eon leapt towards him, shield forward. I have never seen a man jump as far and high as he did right there. They flew right against each other.  
A noise of metal hitting metal followed and they clashed and fell to the ground, both tumbling away their way. A few feathers escaped from the wings of the angel. Eon managed to get on his feet faster. The shield has broken and he threw it off. He turned towards the angel and saw him slowly crawling away. Their sights met. The angel started quickly pulling himself onto his feet, trying to get further away and spread out his wings. Eon sped up. I thought he would take out the sword first, but he didn't. He didn't want to let the other one get back into the air.   
The angel saw him charging and quickly jumped off and started swinging with his wings, but it was too late. Eon managed to grab onto his leg midjump and make him lose balance. Back down they went again. And they fought. Punches were exchanged, as both were bared of their weapons. Eon kept him pinned on the ground, but couldn't keep him from rolling to the side, knocking him down. Using the opportunity the angel quickly got up and pulled out his sword from the scabbard. He knew that he wouldn't fly away anymore. He waited for Eon to prepare. 

"Cannot fly anymore?" A grin formed on his face "So mortal..." He laughed out loud, held the sword firmly with both hands and charged forward at Eon. He blocked the hit and slashed from the upper side. The angel didn't even flinch when the blade hit him in the shoulder and dived deep into his flesh. Instead he plunged his own sword right through Eon's torso. Blood splurged out from Eon's back towards me. A gurgling howl came from his mouth as he pulled away, pulling the bloody sword with him. Breathing heavily he started circling around the angel.   
"I should just be merciful and kill you right away." the angel said as he lunged another atack at Eon. He let the hit graze his arm and made a sweeping hit to the angel's belly. A stench filled the air, but the angel didn't mind it much. His sword pierced Eon's armor on the shoulder as he stabbed him from an upper angle, driving his sword deep into Eon's torso. At that point I barely saw into his eyes. But what I could see was a clear surprise when Eon grabbed his arm firmly and wrestled him to the side. They both began tumbling to the ground. Both their swords deep inside their bodies.   
"A sword!" Eon yelled at me when they fell. He was still holding the angel by his arm, pulling him aside, the angel struggling to get free. His wings on full display.   
"And step away!" He said when I threw my sword to him. So I did, I backtracked as much as I could, but still see what was going to happen. While struggling, Eon stuck the sword bellow one of the wings. A horrible scream filled the air as a wing was dismembered. Purple blood came oozing out of the fresh wound. Eon eased his hold and the angel rolled away, stumbling onto his feet, face crumpled in agony.   
"How..." he asked "You are a mortal..." his voice staggered and his sight rested on Eon "No mortal can kill us". His stature spoke of giving up.   
"I can" Eon responded as he slowly got on his feet and walked towards the angel, his sword at the ready. "Let's finish this" he said and tried not to step into the purple blood. Black wing stained with purple blood. I saw as it started producing smoke where it touched the blood. Eon walked around the defeated angel and with a steady motion he slashed the remaining wing off. Not being too cruel to the angel, he chopped of his head before he had too much time to scream. 

I looked around. Our whole unit was dead. Nobody stayed alive. Struggling to get on my feet I rushed back to the main camp. The mutants were all dead or running away. They didn't fight back anymore. That was the first angel we downed and the greatest losses we suffered. But he was dead.

I saw what remained of the king that day. Not that you would call it a king anymore. Limbs torn off, head nowhere to be found and torso halfway eaten. I would have preffered him to be stabbed, honestly.


End file.
